The Stone's Victim
by CelesteRiddle89
Summary: Who knew the resurrection stone could have such a hold on someone. Something so small causing such damage. Written for the 2017 Platform 9 3/4 Valentine contest on facebook and originally posted on under the Platform 9 3/4 account. Winner of Best Angst in above contest. All Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling.


It was calling to her. The little stone. The same as it called to her the day she found it months ago on the floor of the Forbidden Forest while helping Hagrid check on the unicorn herd. The same as it called to her every day since.

That first time she'd picked it up when she first found it, she'd turned it over in her hands as she looked it over for any marks. Seconds later, she heard a whispered " _Angie..."_ , causing her to look around as she dropped the stone in her pocket. When she didn't see anything or anyone, she shook her head. She convinced herself it was her mind playing tricks on her. After all, she couldn't have just heard Fred's voice. He had died a month before in the Battle of Hogwarts. Time passed after that. The stone would call to her but for the most part she was able to ignore it. Occasionally, she would give in briefly and hear her name whispered before something would happen to call her away. She'd put the stone away and leave to take care of whatever had come up. But it seemed the call of the stone had gotten stronger when it neared her birthday. It was growing harder for her to resist it but yet, she never told anyone. After all, who would believe a stone was calling to her.

Then it was on her birthday exactly that things had started to fall. She had blocked off her floo and put up anti-apparition spells on her home for the day. Even though it was her birthday, she wanted to be left her alone. It was her first birthday since before she had started Hogwarts that she wouldn't have Fred around. The realization of that fact had hit her hard and had started her grief anew, hence her desire to be left alone.

Angelina walked over to her vanity where the box holding the stone sat. She opened the box as she sat down in front of the mirror. She took the stone in hand and unconsciously turned it. "Oh Fred," She sighed. "Today's not the same without you. I miss you." She murmured as she looked down at the stone.

"I miss you too Angie." Fred's voice whispered in her ear.

She looked up into the mirror with a gasp. "Fred?" She blinked a couple of times to make sure she was seeing what she was seeing. For there in the mirror was what seemed to be a transparent almost ghostly figure of Fred Weasley.

"Yeah. It's me." He gave a half-smile. "How've you been?"

"Could be better." She chanced a turn and smiled when he didn't disappear just because she was no longer looking in the mirror.

Slowly, Angelina was at home more often after that. It took only one time for her to figure that without the stone in hand, she wouldn't see him. It went from conversations with him before she went to bed at night to adding time before she left for work. It wasn't long before she was at either at home or at work and anyone else who wanted to talk to her had to catch her at work. By the time January rolled around, she had started working from home just so she wouldn't have to go out. Which then meant that there were small windows where she could be reached at all. But that changed half-way through the month where she quit work so she could have the shadow of Fred around her to talk to and see all the time. By that point, she had also been forgoing eating and drinking regularly.

It all came to a head the week leading up to Valentine's. Yet another holiday of romance and even though she was using the stone all the time to have Fred around, it wasn't quite the same. She missed him way too much. She gave away all her belongings and ended her lease after releasing her wards. Two days before Valentine's day, with the stone in hand, a now severely malnourished Angelina Johnson made her way to the cemetery where Fred was buried.

Once she got there, she settled down on the ground, sitting with her back against his tombstone. She continued on as she had been, talking to the 'shadow' of him that the stone gave her. A voice in the back of her mind told her that if Fred was alive, he wouldn't have just let her spend so much time wasting away and that he certainly wouldn't have wanted her to do so once he was gone. It tried to explain that the 'shadow' wasn't really Fred. But Angelina was too caught up at this point in the stone's spell and ignored the voice of reason.

And so she sat there for the next two days, speaking with the 'shadow' of Fred. All along, she was unaware of the panic for her well-being and amongst her friends that had begun when it was discovered she'd given up her place and the owls would bring back any letters they attempted to send her. Angelina was blissfully unaware of anything going on outside of what she was doing and the gradual change in her breathing.

At noon on Valentine's day, she knew it wouldn't be much longer. She looked at Fred with a soft smile. "Happy Valentine's day, Fred."

"Happy Valentine's day, Angelina." he replied.

"I'm going to rest now. I'll see you soon, love." And with that, she closed her eyes and breathed her last as she laid against Fred's tombstone, finally at peace. Her grip on the stone slackened, ending the magic that brought the shadow of Fred to her side.

And that was how she was found that evening by a team of aurors with Harry and Ron at the lead. Harry had been the one to find her first of the group and upon checking for a pulse, sighed with a heavy heart when he found none. He did recognize the stone in her hand before the other aurors saw it. Pocketing it, he gave the orders for the other aurors to take her body while he and Ron went to notify her next of kin and friends.


End file.
